une, 1775, to deliberate and decide upon Lord
North's proposition. But while the Burgesses were deliberating upon the
subject submitted to them, Lord Dunmore, agitated by his own fears, left
with his family the seat of government, and went on board a ship of war.
The House of Burgesses, however, proceeded in their deliberations;
referred the subject to a Committee, which presented a report prepared
by Mr. Jefferson, and adopted by the House, as a final answer to Lord
North's proposal. They said, "Next to the possession of liberty, they
should consider a reconciliation as the greatest of human blessings, but
that the resolution of the House of Commons only changed the form of
oppression, without lightening its burdens; that government in the
colonies was instituted not for the British Parliament, but for the
colonies themselves; that the British Parliament had no right to meddle
with their Constitution, or to prescribe either the number or the
pecuniary appointments of their officers; that they had a right to give
their money without coercion, and from time to time; that they alone
were the judges, alike of the public exigencies and the ability of the
people; that they contended not merely for the mode of raising their
money, but for the freedom of granting it; that the resolve to forbear
levying pecuniary taxes still left unrepealed the Acts restraining
trade, altering the form of government of Massachusetts, changing the
government of Quebec, enlarging the jurisdiction of Courts of Admiralty,
taking away the trial by jury, and keeping up standing armies; that the
invasion of the colonies with large armaments by sea and land was a
style of asking gifts not reconcilable to freedom; that the resolution
did not propose to the colonies to lay open a free trade with all the
world; that as it involved the interests of all the other colonies, they
were in honour bound to share one fate with them; that the Bill of Lord
Chatham on the one part, and the terms of Congress on the other, would
have formed a basis for negotiation and a reconciliation; that leaving
the final determination of the question to the General Congress, they
will weary the King with no more petitions--the British nation with no
more appeals." "What then," they ask, "remains to be done?" and they
answer, "That we commit our injuries to the justice of the even-handed
Being who doeth no wrong."

When the Earl of Shelburne read Mr. Jefferson's report, he said: "In